Holy cow I think the contractions did something.

[Carlito's_wife]

Okay first let me say to you all I have never felt my cervix. Looked for it a few times but I just never found it. I am pretty clueless when it comes to my insides.

Well I had the weird thing with the contractions and baby feeling like she has dropped but I am not worried about it all because contractions stopped along with pain. If it was labor or something like that it would not have stopped. And I felt I should have went in but I am really really not at all into labor & delivery unless I am 110% sure I am in labor. I mean I would pretty much have to feel the babies hair down there before I would go in. But tonight I decided it couldn't hurt anything to check and see if I could locate my cervix. I am curious, . . .shoot me.

Good thing I was laying down because I would have really fell down if I could have. I felt it. I mean I didn't have to search for it at all. It was very very low. Even more shocking, I am no cervix expert but it seemed to be open. Well at least it felt like what I would imagine a dialated cervix to feel like. Very small amount though. They say each finger width is a cm (I think) so I am guessing 2. Of course I won't do that again because I know that could trigger contractions but wow!!!! I finally found it. Or it found me. Who knows.

[True Blue]

Well that's cool, I'd love to be 2cm a few weeks before labor! I've known how to check mine for a while and checked all the time with DD, and will start closer with this one. Just for my own knowledge and curiosity. It's cool to be able to track the changes on your own, especially if you are going to have a hospital birth...you can make sure yourself you don't go in too early.

[smokeylo]

Cool. I used to be all about cervix checks when ttc but now I'm HANDS OFF!! I think it could get addictive! Plus don't want some nasty infection or anything.

[nolonger]

My cervix and I have not been in touch since I was peeing on sticks every day and watching the line get darker, so it's WAY up there, but your post inspired me to see if I could find it and bump up against my little one's head through my vaginal wall. WOAH! That still trips me out so much; I can't believe I submitted to all of those internals with my big kids and never once felt their heads myself or even thought about doing it.

I haven't done it very regularly, so it was amazing to me that the hard, round, golfball sized lump is now about the same size as ds's head was when he was born! S/he was too sleepy to play the head-butting game at the time, but I guess I can stop bellymapping and worrying about breech, because s/he always has preferred to be head down and it's totally unmistakeable.

I tend to agree with Lauren about the risk of infection and how addictive it might be to check my cervix (if i could find it) so I think I'll just stick to irregular "head checks" and maybe possibly pick up some sterile gloves for labour if I absolutely have to check dilation then.

[flapjack]

Welcome to your body

[the elyse]

any tips on how to reach it? i tried last week (had some crazy back pain and thought i was in labor) and couldn't find it.

[Kitten]

I check every once in a while. I'm not really concerned about infection. I wash my hands well and don't actually stick fingers into my cervix. I figure, DH doesn't exactly sterilize his man parts before we DTD and they're my germs anyway, not like they're something new or foreign to my body. I don't have long fingernails either (which could hide bacteria).

[BinahYeteirah]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about infection as long as my hands are clean and my membranes are intact. Actually, during my last labor I checked myself after my membranes ruptured. I was clearly in active labor so even if I did introduce bacteria, I just wasn't worried about infection as I was confident that baby would be born within a few hours. But if my waters did break without my going into serious labor, I'd keep my hands out to reduce risk of infection. That's the only time I'd worry, though.

[Mama2-4]

I am not going to worry about my cervix...too much added stress! At 37 weeks I plan to start taking Evening Primrose Oil to help ripen my cervix. With my last baby I was about 4 cm before labor even started...I hope that happens again!

[eilonwy]

I'd love to be able to get to mine, but it's so not happening unless i grow longer arms and fingers.

The risk of infection from my own fingers has to be less than it would from a DP; after all, i'm washing my hands and paying attention.